Aims

Due to their radiolucency and favourable mechanical properties, carbon fibre nails may be a preferable alternative to titanium nails for oncology patients. We aim to compare the surgical characteristics and short-term results of patients who underwent intramedullary fixation with either a titanium or carbon fibre nail for pathological long-bone fracture.

Aims

Cervical radiculopathy is a significant cause of pain and morbidity. For patients with severe and poorly controlled symptoms who may not be candidates for surgical management, treatment with transforaminal epidural steroid injections (CTFESI) has gained widespread acceptance. However, a paucity of high-quality evidence supporting their use balanced against perceived high risks of the procedure potentially undermines the confidence of clinicians who use the technique. We undertook a systematic review of the available literature regarding CTFESI to assess the clinical efficacy and complication rates of the procedure.

Aims

Adverse spinal motion or balance (spine mobility) and adverse pelvic mobility, in combination, are often referred to as adverse spinopelvic mobility (SPM). A stiff lumbar spine, large posterior standing pelvic tilt, and severe sagittal spinal deformity have been identified as risk factors for increased hip instability. Adverse SPM can create functional malposition of the acetabular components and hence is an instability risk. Adverse pelvic mobility is often, but not always, associated with abnormal spinal motion parameters. Dislocation rates for dual-mobility articulations (DMAs) have been reported to be between 0% and 1.1%. The aim of this study was to determine the early survivorship from the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry (AOANJRR) of patients with adverse SPM who received a DMA.

Abnormal sagittal kinematics after total knee replacement (TKR) can adversely affect functional outcome. Two important determinants of knee kinematics are component geometry and the presence or absence of a posterior-stabilising mechanism (cam-post). We investigated the influence of these variables by comparing the kinematics of a TKR with a polyradial femur with a single radius design, both with and without a cam-post mechanism. We assessed 55 patients, subdivided into four groups, who had undergone a TKR one year earlier by using an established fluoroscopy protocol in order to examine their kinematics in vivo. The kinematic profile was obtained by measuring the patellar tendon angle through the functional knee flexion range (0° to 90°) and the results compared with 14 normal knees. All designs of TKR had abnormal sagittal kinematics compared with the normal knee. There was a significant (p < 0.05) difference between those of the two TKRs near to full extension. The presence of the cam-post mechanism did not influence the kinematics for either TKR design. These differences suggest that surface geometry is a stronger determinant of kinematics than the presence or absence of a cam-post mechanism for these two designs. This may be because the cam-post mechanism is ineffective

We carried out a prospective study over a period of 12 months to measure the exposure to radiation of the hands of a dedicated foot and ankle surgeon. A thermoluminescent dosimeter ring (TLD) was used to measure the cumulative dose of radiation. Fluoroscopy was used in operations on the foot and ankle. The total screening time was 3028 s, with a mean time per procedure of 37.4 s (0.6 to 197). This correlated positively with the number of procedures performed (r = 0.92, p < 0.001), and with the dose of radiation in both the left (r = 0.85, p = 0.0005) and right TLDs (r = 0.59, p = 0.419). There was no significant difference in the dose of radiation between the two hands (t-test, p = 0.62). The total dose to the right TLD over the 12 months was 2.4 millisieverts. This is a simple and convenient method for evaluating the exposure of a single surgeon to radiation. The radiation detected was well below the annual dose limit set by the International Commission on Radiological Protection

Intra-articular punctures and injections are performed routinely on patients with injuries to and chronic diseases of joints, to release an effusion or haemarthrosis, or to inject drugs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the accuracy of placement of the needle during this procedure. A total of 76 cadaver acromioclavicular joints were injected with a solution containing methyl blue and subsequently dissected to distinguish intra- from peri-articular injection. In order to assess the importance of experience in achieving accurate placement, half of the injections were performed by an inexperienced resident and half by a skilled specialist. The specialist injected a further 20 cadaver acromioclavicular joints with the aid of an image intensifier. The overall frequency of peri-articular injection was much higher than expected at 43% (33 of 76) overall, with 42% (16 of 38) by the specialist and 45% (17 of 38) by the resident. The specialist entered the joint in all 20 cases when using the image intensifier. Correct positioning of the needle in the joint should be facilitated by fluoroscopy, thereby guaranteeing an intra-articular injection

There has been a marked increase in the number of hip arthroscopies performed over the past 16 years, primarily in the management of femoroacetabular impingement (FAI). Insights into the pathoanatomy of FAI, and high-level evidence supporting the clinical effectiveness of arthroscopy in the management of FAI, have fuelled this trend. Arthroscopic management of labral tears with repair may have superior results compared with debridement, and there is now emerging evidence to support reconstructive options where repair is not possible. In situations where an interportal capsulotomy is performed to facilitate access, data now support closure of the capsule in selective cases where there is an increased risk of postoperative instability. Preoperative planning is an integral component of bony corrective surgery in FAI, and this has evolved to include computer-planned resection. However, the benefit of this remains controversial. Hip instability is now widely accepted, and diagnostic criteria and treatment are becoming increasingly refined. Instability can also be present with FAI or develop as a result of FAI treatment. In this annotation, we outline major current controversies relating to decision-making in hip arthroscopy for FAI.

Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2022;104-B(5):532–540.

Aims

There is evidence that morbidly obese patients have more intra- and postoperative complications and poorer outcomes when undergoing total hip arthroplasty (THA) with the direct anterior approach (DAA). The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of DAA for THA, and compare the complications and outcomes of morbidly obese patients with nonobese patients.

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Postoperative malalignment of the femur is one of the main complications in distal femur fractures. Few papers have investigated the impact of intraoperative malalignment on postoperative function and bone healing outcomes. The aim of this study was to investigate how intraoperative fracture malalignment affects postoperative bone healing and functional outcomes.

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The direct anterior approach (DAA) for total hip arthroplasty (THA) has potential advantages over other approaches and is most commonly performed with the patient in the supine position. We describe a technique for DAA THA with the patient in the lateral decubitus position and report the early clinical and radiological outcomes, the characteristics of the learning curve, and perioperative complications.

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Prompt and sufficient broad-spectrum empirical antibiotic treatment is key to preventing infection following open tibial fractures. Succeeding co-administration, we dynamically assessed the time for which vancomycin and meropenem concentrations were above relevant epidemiological cut-off (ECOFF) minimal inhibitory concentrations (T > MIC) in tibial compartments for the bacteria most frequently encountered in open fractures. Low and high MIC targets were applied: 1 and 4 µg/ml for vancomycin, and 0.125 and 2 µg/ml for meropenem.

Aims

Outcomes of current operative treatments for arthrofibrosis after total knee arthroplasty (TKA) are not consistently positive or predictable. Pharmacological in vivo studies have focused mostly on prevention of arthrofibrosis. This study used a rabbit model to evaluate intra-articular (IA) effects of celecoxib in treating contracted knees alone, or in combination with capsular release.

The aim of this study was to determine the accuracy of registration and the precision of the resection volume in navigated hip arthroscopy for cam-type femoroacetabular impingement, using imageless and image-based registration. A virtual cam lesion was defined in 12 paired cadaver hips and randomly assigned to either imageless or image-based (three-dimensional (3D) fluoroscopy) navigated arthroscopic head–neck osteochondroplasty. The accuracy of patient–image registration for both protocols was evaluated and post-operative imaging was performed to evaluate the accuracy of the surgical resection. We found that the estimated accuracy of imageless registration in the arthroscopic setting was poor, with a mean error of 5.6 mm (standard deviation (. sd. ) 4.08; 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.14 to 7.19). Because of the significant mismatch between the actual position of the probe during surgery and the position of that probe as displayed on the navigation platform screen, navigated femoral osteochondroplasty was physically impossible. The estimated accuracy of image-based registration by means of 3D fluoroscopy had a mean error of 0.8 mm (. sd. 0.51; 95% CI 0.56 to 0.94). In terms of the volume of bony resection, a mean of 17% (. sd. 11; -6% to 28%) more bone was resected than with the virtual plan (p = 0.02). The resection was a mean of 1 mm deeper (. sd. 0.7; -0.3 to 1.6) larger than on the original virtual plan (p = 0.02). In conclusion, given the limited femoral surface that can be reached and digitised during arthroscopy of the hip, imageless registration is inaccurate and does not allow for reliable surgical navigation. However, image-based registration does acceptably allow for guided femoral osteochondroplasty in the arthroscopic management of femoroacetabular impingement

Aims. Minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (MITLIF) has been well validated in overweight and obese patients who are consequently subject to a higher radiation exposure. This prospective multicentre study aimed to investigate the efficacy of a novel lumbar localisation system for MITLIF in overweight patients. Patients and Methods. The initial study group consisted of 175 patients. After excluding 49 patients for various reasons, 126 patients were divided into two groups. Those in Group A were treated using the localisation system while those in Group B were treated by conventional means. The primary outcomes were the effective radiation dosage to the surgeon and the exposure time. Results. There were 62 patients in Group A and 64 in Group B. The mean effective dosage was 0.0217 mSv (standard deviation (. sd. ) 0.0079) in Group A and 0.0383 mSv (. sd. 0.0104) in Group B (p <  0.001). The mean fluoroscopy exposure time was 26.42 seconds (. sd. 5.91) in Group A and 40.67 seconds (. sd. 8.18) in Group B (p < 0.001). The operating time was 175.56 minutes (. sd. 32.23) and 206.08 minutes (. sd. 30.15) (p < 0.001), respectively. The mean pre-operative localisation time was 4.73 minutes (. sd. 0.84) in Group A and 7.03 minutes (. sd. 1.51) in Group B (p < 0.001). The mean screw placement time was 47.37 minutes (. sd. 10.43) in Group A and 67.86 minutes (. sd. 14.15) in Group B (p < 0.001). The pedicle screw violation rate was 0.35% (one out of 283) in Group A and 2.79% (eight out of 287) in Group B (p = 0.020). Conclusion. The study shows that the localisation system can effectively reduce radiation exposure, exposure time, operating time, pre-operative localisation time, and screw placement time in overweight patients undergoing MITLIF. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2017;99-B:944–50

Aims

Temporary epiphysiodesis (ED) is commonly applied in children and adolescents to treat leg length discrepancies (LLDs) and tall stature. Traditional Blount staples or modern two-hole plates are used in clinical practice. However, they require accurate planning, precise surgical techniques, and attentive follow-up to achieve the desired outcome without complications. This study reports the results of ED using a novel rigid staple (RigidTack) incorporating safety, as well as technical and procedural success according to the idea, development, evaluation, assessment, long-term (IDEAL) study framework.

Aims

To achieve the functional benefits of the direct anterior (DA) approach and the fixation benefits of cemented replacement, this study combined the two techniques posing the following questions: does the limited access of the DA approach adversely affect the cement technique?; and does such a cementing technique reduce the incidence of cementless complications?